If you’re reading this I know your IP address, the state and
city you live in, where you came from on the web, how much time you spent
reading my blog and what you read.If
you replied to my email linking to my blog I could easily spend a few minutes
knowing if you are visiting as an individual or through a company
location.I can even find your address
via coordinates and do a Google Earth search and catch a bird’s eye view of
your home or office.

I am not a hacker.I
am not a data scientist. I have no interest in spying on visitors or circumventing
privacy acts.But simple, often free, third
party application tools allow anyone to venture into this nefarious world of invasive
spying, leading to data collection on a deeper, much deeper, level.

Once data is collected, it can be harvested.Yet as we allow this practice to continue, Adobe
notes that “82% of global consumers believe that companies collect too much
information on consumers.”

It is no longer a paranoid minority that is freaking
out.GFK and Microsoft found that 93% of
email users believe that users should be able to opt-out if they don't want the
content of their emails to be scanned in order to target ads.And the Pew Research Center confirms that 86%
of U.S. internet users have attempted to remove or mask their online activities.

As an offshoot to this paranoia, ad blocking patches for web
surfing have been slowly nipping away at ad based revenue streams for
publishers.It is estimated that 20% of
U.S. surfers have installed ad blockers. The number in the Euro zone is a whopping
40%.

Now the brands and data companies are freaking out.

Data thirsty brands and media may be killing the goose
laying the golden data egg.Tables are
slowly turning on the data hunters/gatherers as privacy laws and special
interest groups begin to educate the consumer that Big Brother, on the government and enterprise
level, is watching. The backlash will hurt.

In the coming months this blog will monitor privacy issues
with commentary on both benefits and cautions on the state of the business.

The GOP circus train driven by ”The Donald” and stoked by
the media, is coming dangerously close to riding off the rails that would
otherwise encourage the political discourse which voters evaluate to make
informed decisions.

I am awestruck by the acceptance of the republican middle,
embracing the hyperbole that is blurring their ability to separate reality from
the fantasies of Donald Trump.

Like the Road Runner cartoon in which Wile E. Coyote paints
a tunnel on a rock wall and Wile E. Coyote slams into it believing his own illusion, Trump is leading both his constituents and his rivals into the wall as well.

Without referencing Mr. Trump’s often caustic and hurtful instances
to vituperate Mexicans. immigrants, women and his peers among others, he is, by
default, energizing a dangerous group of “passionate” lemmings he considers “his
people”.

And while Trump may personify Nebuchadnezzar before his
twisted mind was made right, it is doubtful Trump will make things right.

George Stephanopoulos’ recent interview of Trump asking him “HOW”
he intends to carry through his policies, solicited this response …. ‘Management”

His GOP rivals have been thrown into an arena facing a den full of hungry lions.And they don’t have the chops to go toe to toe with Trump, embracing
fear and paralysis instead.

"The federal government is expecting to spend more than $500 million in
the next five years to manage data breaches. The money will be spent to
clean up the damage that results from exposed data
which often includes private information such as email passwords, credit
card numbers and social security numbers. The government is budgeting
this money to pay contractors that can mange these
events."

According to this year's benchmark findings, data breaches cost companies an average of $217 per compromised record, of which $143 pertains to indirect costs which include abnormal customer turnover, and $74 represents the direct costs incurred to resolve the data breach such as investments in tech and legal fees.

According to the study, malicious attacks continue to be the primary cause of data breaches accounting for 49% of incidents. Nineteen percent concerned employee negligence and 32% involved IT and business process failures.

The total average organizational cost in 2014 rose to $6.53 million. The study suggests steps to decrease the cost of a breach, but diligence and up-front investments appear to be front and center.

The statistics are chilling and should serve as a wake up call that has been ringing off the hook for several years.The Feds are obviously concerned as they will be investing in excess of 15X the average rate of a U.S. firm's cost for the next 5 years, at minimum, to manage these expected events. Note to the Feds: How about managing increased security before the breach event?

In just the last few days reports of hacking and ad fraud appeared
as footnotes in the trade media.

CMOs have much to be concerned about.

ITPRO announced that a YAHOO malvertising attack left 900
million users at risk of ransomware. Yes,
that was 900 MILLION. On the same day, Trustwave Holdings discovered hackers who were using RTB platforms to spread a Trojan virus
through programmatic ads that do not need to be clicked on to activate the
virus. In other words, simply visiting a
site can infect a computer.

As most programmatic platforms do not have robust technology
to distinguish between hackers and advertisers, Trustwave believes it is fairly
easy to pose as a legitimate business and buy up infectious ads.

ComScore recently tracked NHT (Non-Human Traffic) across a
number of campaigns and recognized that 14% of the campaigns generated 5-20% of
NHT, accounting for 45% of the total NHT impressions. Another company at the forefront of fraud analysis is Forensiq, "relentlessly fighting online ad fraud".

I would venture that most CMOs have no standards in place
with sellers, technology platforms feeding programmatic and traditional trades,
their agencies and data providers.

Recently, a Jeep SUV was hacked through its entertainment
system and controlled from a remote (10 mile) distance and forced to drive off
the road. Chrysler and Harmon are now
facing class-action suits. Could Yahoo face
similar negligence suits for failing to protect its users from the malvertising
hack?